Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters trailer: piddling peril

When did fantasy movies get so dull and predictable? Hero boy and his brainy girl sidekick and his wiseass guy sidekick save the world. Again. It’s fantasy. It should show us stuff we’ve never seen before, perferrably in a way we’ve never seen before. It shouldn’t look so familiar and so–

Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters Nathan Fillion

Oh, hey: Nathan Fillion! Cool!

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bronxbee
bronxbee
Thu, Jun 27, 2013 7:34pm

is he playing the corporate bad guy? or some kind of heroic mentor in disguise?

Bluejay
Bluejay
reply to  bronxbee
Thu, Jun 27, 2013 11:11pm

He’s playing Hermes.

RogerBW
RogerBW
Thu, Jun 27, 2013 7:58pm

It seems a bit odd that, after they’ve gone to all the trouble of grounding the first film in the modern world, they should abandon it for a re-telling of The Odyssey with just one or two high-tech toys. Still, apparently the book does the same thing.

I think fantasy film-making is like SF film-making: always about a generation behind the books. The people who control the way a film looks now were reading books as kids in the seventies, eighties and nineties. And, especially after The Lord of the Rings, that means endless series of Epics.

Bluejay
Bluejay
reply to  RogerBW
Thu, Jun 27, 2013 11:15pm

The Percy Jackson films, though, are based on a series of books which have only come out in the last few years, and are inspired more by Harry Potter than by Lord of the Rings.

Rob
Rob
reply to  Bluejay
Thu, Jun 27, 2013 11:29pm

Actually, though they came out after Harry Potter, the author, Rick Riordan, wrote them before but wasn’t able to get them published until after Harry became popular.

Bluejay
Bluejay
reply to  Rob
Thu, Jun 27, 2013 11:33pm

Ah, yes! I had read that, but had forgotten. Thanks for the correction.

RogerBW
RogerBW
reply to  Bluejay
Thu, Jun 27, 2013 11:34pm

I can’t speak to these particular books at all, not having read them — but I think the current trend for huge epic fantasy film series is rooted in the four- and five-book trilogies of the 1980s.

Bluejay
Bluejay
reply to  RogerBW
Thu, Jun 27, 2013 11:44pm

Which film series are you thinking of? Besides the LOTR/Hobbit and Narnia films (from books predating the 1980s). I’m noticing more fantasy films inspired by fairy tales (Snow White and the Huntsman, Jack the Giant Slayer, Hansel and Gretel, etc) and contemporary YA fiction (Twilight, Percy Jackson, Beautiful Creatures, the upcoming Mortal Instruments).

RogerBW
RogerBW
reply to  Bluejay
Thu, Jun 27, 2013 11:51pm

I think filmmakers are trying for the next Lord of the Rings. Most of the attempts are failing.
(You could put The Hunger Games in there with contemporary YA.)

Bluejay
Bluejay
reply to  RogerBW
Thu, Jun 27, 2013 11:59pm

What attempts are you thinking of?

Tonio Kruger
Sat, Jun 29, 2013 5:50pm

Spoiler One would have thought that Michael Fassbender would have been a more appropriate choice to play Hermes…